Deal splits $150K found in garden -- but too late for finder

Wayne Sabaj, in his garden in McHenry, September 8 2011, where he found about $150,000. ((Dave Shields/for the Tribune) )

The mystery of who lost, and who will get to keep, $150,000 in cash found in a backyard vegetable garden has been solved — but not soon enough for the man who made the discovery.

Wayne Sabaj was an out-of-work, in-debt carpenter when he found the money stuffed in nylon bags in August 2011 behind his home near far northwest suburban Johnsburg. Sabaj reported his discovery to police and later went to court in a bid to claim the cash if no one else stepped forward.

But Sabaj, 51, died of diabetes complications on July 1 — 10 days before a court settlement would have allowed him to keep a portion of the money.

Thursday, McHenry County Judge Thomas Meyer signed off on a deal to split the money between Sabaj's son, Kevin, and Diane Howe, the daughter of Sabaj's elderly neighbor, Dolores Johnson.

Johnson also died before the case was settled. But Howe was able to show that her mother, who suffered from dementia, most likely stashed the money in her neighbor's garden. Howe, who did not attend Thursday's hearing, was able to describe the money — older bills, mostly twenties, stuffed in paper and plastic bags and bound with bank wrappers and paper clips — because she often would count it out for her mother, said her attorney, Kevin McBride.

Howe had said her mother told her she threw away the money because "it was cursed," McBride said.

Before his death, Wayne Sabaj was due to receive a finder's fee as his portion of the settlement. That amount, which was not disclosed, will now go to his son.

Wayne Sabaj's attorney, Robert Burke, called his late client "a nice man, a good man."

Both attorneys said Sabaj did the right thing by calling police when he found the money. Burke said he wished Sabaj could have been alive to see the outcome.

"Wayne would have been happy with the settlement" and probably would have used the money to pay off some bills, Burke said.